Linux-Based Operating Systems - System Management

Flashcards covering Linux system management including archiving, compression tools (gzip, bzip2, xz, zip), tar utilities, custom aliases, MBR vs GPT partitioning, LVM architecture, and disk monitoring commands (df, du).

Who is the lecturer and what was the date for the Week 7 System Management lecture?

Mr. Heystek Grobler on June 14, 2026.

What is the primary difference between archiving and compression?

Archiving is a container for multiple files or directories with no size reduction, whereas compression reduces file size using algorithms to save disk space.

In the example of archiving 10 files of $100\,KB$ each, what is the resulting archive size?

$$1,000\,KB$$

Which compression tool uses the DEFLATE algorithm and is natively supported by Windows, macOS, and Linux?

zip

What are the compression algorithms used by gzip, bzip2, and xz respectively?

gzip uses LZ77, bzip2 uses Burrows-Wheeler + Huffman, and xz uses LZMA2.

How do you compress a directory recursively using the zip command?

$ zip -r pictures.zip /home/user/Pictures/

What flag is used with gzip to keep the original file during compression?

-vk

Which Linux compression tool is currently considered the most space-efficient?

xz

In the tar command, what do the options -c, -x, and -v represent?

-c creates an archive, -x extracts an archive, and -v provides verbose output.

What are the tar flags for gzip, bzip2, and xz compression?

-z for gzip (.tar.gz), -j for bzip2 (.tar.bz2), and -J for xz (.tar.xz).

What command allows you to extract a .tar archive to a specific directory?

$ tar -xvf archive.tar -C /path/to/destination/

What is the purpose of listing archive contents with 'tar -tvf' before extracting?

It shows permissions, modification times, and filenames to prevent accidental overwrites and verify if files are contained in a directory.

What is a Linux alias?

A custom command created by a user to execute another, usually more complicated, command or group of commands.

How do you make an alias permanent in Linux?

Add the alias definition to the /home/username/.bashrc file and run 'source /home/username/.bashrc' to apply it immediately.

What is the result of the alias command: alias date="date;cal"?

Running the 'date' command will display both the current date/time and the calendar.

Compare the maximum partition limit and maximum disk size for MBR and GPT.

MBR supports up to 4 primary partitions and a $2\,TB$ disk size; GPT supports up to 128 partitions and a $9.4\,ZB$ disk size.

How does MBR overcome the limit of 4 primary partitions?

By creating an extended partition which can contain up to 12 logical partitions.

What are the three key components of Logical Volume Management (LVM) architecture?

Physical Volumes (PVs), Volume Groups (VGs), and Logical Volumes (LVs).

When was LVM introduced and for which Linux kernel?

Introduced in 1998 for the Linux 2.4 kernel.

What LVM capability allows for a consistent backup without system shutdown?

Snapshots, which capture the exact state of a logical volume at a specific moment.

What is the single-step command to expand a Logical Volume by $50\,GB$ and auto-resize the filesystem?

$ lvextend -r -L +50G /dev/MyVG01/Stuff

What is the difference between the df and du commands?

df (disk free) displays information about mounted storage devices and free space, while du (disk usage) analyzes disk usage within specific directories and files.

Which df option is used to show the filesystem type?

-T

How can you use the du command to identify the top 10 'space hogs' in a directory?

$ du -sh * | sort -rh | head -10